What are the underlying handful of fundamentals that haven't changed for over a hundred years? From Harnish's famous "One-Page Strategic Plan" to his concise outline of eight practical actions you can take to strengthen your culture, this book is a compilation of best practices adapted from some of the best-run firms on the planet. Included is an instructive chapter co-authored by Rich Russakoff, revealing winning tactics to get banks to finance your business.

Built to Sell

Creating a Business That Can Thrive Without You

By:
John Warrillow

Narrated by:
Erik Synnestvedt

Length: 4 hrs and 24 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
232

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
204

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
199

A business parable about how to create a start-up that won't trap you when you want to sell it. According to John Warrillow, the number one mistake entrepreneurs make is to build a business that relies too heavily on them. Thus, when the time comes to sell, buyers aren't confident that the company-even if it's profitable-can stand on its own. To illustrate this, Warrillow introduces us to a fictional small business owner named Alex who is struggling to sell his advertising agency.

4 out of 5 stars

Excellent content let down by terrible narration

By
Alex M
on
07-09-17

Great by Choice

Uncertainty, Chaos and Luck - Why Some Thrive Despite Them All

By:
Morten T Hansen,
Jim Collins

Narrated by:
Jim Collins

Length: 8 hrs and 33 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
159

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
109

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
108

Ten years after the worldwide best seller
Good to Great, Jim Collins returns with another ground-breaking work, this time to ask: Why do some companies thrive in uncertainty, even chaos, and others do not? Based on nine years of research, buttressed by rigorous analysis and infused with engaging stories, Collins and his colleague, Morten Hansen, enumerate the principles for building a truly great enterprise in unpredictable, tumultuous, and fast-moving times.

5 out of 5 stars

great content

By
Mike Hayden
on
11-02-17

Clockwork

Design Your Business to Run Itself

By:
Mike Michalowicz

Narrated by:
Mike Michalowicz

Length: 7 hrs and 30 mins

Unabridged

Overall

5 out of 5 stars
40

Performance

5 out of 5 stars
37

Story

5 out of 5 stars
38

Do you worry that your business will collapse without your constant presence? Are you sacrificing your family, friendships, and freedom to keep your business alive? What if instead your business could run itself, freeing you to do what you love when you want, while it continues to grow and turn a profit? It's possible. And it's easier than you think.

5 out of 5 stars

Another great business book

By
Anonymous User
on
21-11-18

Profit First

Transform Your Business from a Cash-Eating Monster to a Money-Making Machine

By:
Mike Michalowicz

Narrated by:
Mike Michalowicz

Length: 8 hrs and 35 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
176

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
163

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
161

The author of cult classics
The Pumpkin Plan and
The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur offers a simple, counterintuitive cash management solution that will help small businesses break out of the doom spiral and achieve instant profitability.

5 out of 5 stars

Cash is King

By
JK
on
10-03-18

This Is Marketing

You Can’t Be Seen Until You Learn to See

By:
Seth Godin

Narrated by:
Seth Godin

Length: 7 hrs and 2 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
235

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
206

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
206

This book teaches you how to identify your smallest viable audience; draw on the right signals and signs to position your offering; build trust and permission with your target market; speak to the narratives your audience tells themselves about status, affiliation, and dominance; spot opportunities to create and release tension; and give people the tools to achieve their goals.

5 out of 5 stars

Generous as always

By
Anonymous User
on
13-11-18

Mastering the Rockefeller Habits

What You Must Do to Increase the Value of Your Growing Firm

By:
Verne Harnish

Narrated by:
Verne Harnish

Length: 4 hrs and 2 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
9

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
6

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
6

What are the underlying handful of fundamentals that haven't changed for over a hundred years? From Harnish's famous "One-Page Strategic Plan" to his concise outline of eight practical actions you can take to strengthen your culture, this book is a compilation of best practices adapted from some of the best-run firms on the planet. Included is an instructive chapter co-authored by Rich Russakoff, revealing winning tactics to get banks to finance your business.

Built to Sell

Creating a Business That Can Thrive Without You

By:
John Warrillow

Narrated by:
Erik Synnestvedt

Length: 4 hrs and 24 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
232

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
204

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
199

A business parable about how to create a start-up that won't trap you when you want to sell it. According to John Warrillow, the number one mistake entrepreneurs make is to build a business that relies too heavily on them. Thus, when the time comes to sell, buyers aren't confident that the company-even if it's profitable-can stand on its own. To illustrate this, Warrillow introduces us to a fictional small business owner named Alex who is struggling to sell his advertising agency.

4 out of 5 stars

Excellent content let down by terrible narration

By
Alex M
on
07-09-17

Great by Choice

Uncertainty, Chaos and Luck - Why Some Thrive Despite Them All

By:
Morten T Hansen,
Jim Collins

Narrated by:
Jim Collins

Length: 8 hrs and 33 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
159

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
109

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
108

Ten years after the worldwide best seller
Good to Great, Jim Collins returns with another ground-breaking work, this time to ask: Why do some companies thrive in uncertainty, even chaos, and others do not? Based on nine years of research, buttressed by rigorous analysis and infused with engaging stories, Collins and his colleague, Morten Hansen, enumerate the principles for building a truly great enterprise in unpredictable, tumultuous, and fast-moving times.

5 out of 5 stars

great content

By
Mike Hayden
on
11-02-17

Clockwork

Design Your Business to Run Itself

By:
Mike Michalowicz

Narrated by:
Mike Michalowicz

Length: 7 hrs and 30 mins

Unabridged

Overall

5 out of 5 stars
40

Performance

5 out of 5 stars
37

Story

5 out of 5 stars
38

Do you worry that your business will collapse without your constant presence? Are you sacrificing your family, friendships, and freedom to keep your business alive? What if instead your business could run itself, freeing you to do what you love when you want, while it continues to grow and turn a profit? It's possible. And it's easier than you think.

5 out of 5 stars

Another great business book

By
Anonymous User
on
21-11-18

Profit First

Transform Your Business from a Cash-Eating Monster to a Money-Making Machine

By:
Mike Michalowicz

Narrated by:
Mike Michalowicz

Length: 8 hrs and 35 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
176

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
163

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
161

The author of cult classics
The Pumpkin Plan and
The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur offers a simple, counterintuitive cash management solution that will help small businesses break out of the doom spiral and achieve instant profitability.

5 out of 5 stars

Cash is King

By
JK
on
10-03-18

This Is Marketing

You Can’t Be Seen Until You Learn to See

By:
Seth Godin

Narrated by:
Seth Godin

Length: 7 hrs and 2 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
235

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
206

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
206

This book teaches you how to identify your smallest viable audience; draw on the right signals and signs to position your offering; build trust and permission with your target market; speak to the narratives your audience tells themselves about status, affiliation, and dominance; spot opportunities to create and release tension; and give people the tools to achieve their goals.

5 out of 5 stars

Generous as always

By
Anonymous User
on
13-11-18

Traction

Get a Grip on Your Business

By:
Gino Wickman

Narrated by:
Kevin Pierce

Length: 6 hrs and 56 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
122

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
104

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
100

Do you have a grip on your business, or does your business have a grip on you? All entrepreneurs and business leaders face similar frustrations: personnel conflict, profit woes, and inadequate growth. Decisions never seem to get made, or once made, fail to be properly implemented. But there is a solution. It’s not complicated or theoretical.

4 out of 5 stars

Pretty good

By
Kyle
on
20-01-17

Blitzscaling

The Lightning-Fast Path to Building Massively Valuable Companies

By:
Reid Hoffman,
Chris Yeh

Narrated by:
Chris Yeh

Length: 9 hrs and 3 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
61

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
55

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
54

Silicon Valley is renowned for its striking number of businesses which have grown from garage start-ups into global giants - Apple, Cisco, Google, HP and Intel, to name a few. But what is the secret to their outstanding success? Hoffman and Yeh explain that it’s simple: they’ve learnt how to blitzscale. Featuring case studies from numerous prominent tech businesses such as AirBnB and WeChat, this book offers a specific set of practices for catalysing and managing dizzying growth in burgeoning start-ups.

4 out of 5 stars

Useful but not super practical

By
Tom
on
18-10-18

Blue Ocean Strategy

How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make Competition Irrelevant

By:
W. Chan Kim,
Renee Mauborgne

Narrated by:
Grover Gardner

Length: 6 hrs and 27 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4 out of 5 stars
212

Performance

4 out of 5 stars
148

Story

4 out of 5 stars
148

In an audiobook that challenges everything you thought you knew, W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne assert that tomorrow's leading companies will succeed, not by battling their rivals for market share in the bloody "red ocean" of a shrinking profit pool, but by creating "blue oceans" of untapped new market spaces ripe for growth.

2 out of 5 stars

Shame...

By
Anonymous User
on
24-10-18

The E-Myth Revisited

Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work and What to Do About It

By:
Michael E. Gerber

Narrated by:
Michael E. Gerber

Length: 8 hrs and 5 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
893

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
797

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
793

In this audio edition of the totally revised underground best seller,
The E-Myth, Michael Gerber dispels the myths surrounding starting your own business and shows how commonplace assumptions can get in the way of running a business. He walks you through the steps in the life of a business, from entrepreneurial infancy, through adolescent growing pains, to the mature entrepreneurial perspective, the guiding light of all businesses that succeed.

5 out of 5 stars

Small business owners - you must listen to this!

By
KipSoton
on
08-06-14

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team

A Leadership Fable

By:
Patrick Lencioni

Narrated by:
Charles Stransky; introduction by Patrick Lencioni

Length: 3 hrs and 42 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
613

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
490

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
485

In keeping with the parable style, Patrick Lencioni begins by telling the fable of a woman who, as CEO of a struggling Silicon Valley firm, took control of a dysfunctional executive committee and helped its members succeed as a team. Story time over, Lencioni offers explicit instructions for overcoming the human behavioral tendencies that he says corrupt teams. Succinct yet sympathetic, this guide will be a boon for those struggling with the inherent difficulties of leading a group.

5 out of 5 stars

Compelling listen

By
Browns View
on
23-12-12

The Pumpkin Plan

A Simple Strategy to Grow a Remarkable Business in Any Field

By:
Mike Michalowicz

Narrated by:
Mike Michalowicz

Length: 6 hrs and 2 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
138

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
125

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
123

After reading an article about a local farmer who had dedicated his life to growing giant pump­kins, Michalowicz realized the same process could apply to growing a business. He tested the Pumpkin Plan on his own company and transformed it into a remarkable, multimillion-dollar industry leader. First he did it for himself. Then for others. And now you.

5 out of 5 stars

Not as cheesy as first impressions

By
Kenneth
on
18-10-17

The Personal MBA: Master the Art of Business

By:
Josh Kaufman

Narrated by:
Josh Kaufman

Length: 13 hrs and 25 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
357

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
285

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
279

Josh Kaufman founded PersonalMBA.com as an alternative to the business school boondoggle. His blog has introduced hundreds of thousands of readers to the best business books and most powerful business concepts of all time. Now, he shares the essentials of entrepreneurship, marketing, sales, negotiation, operations, productivity, systems design, and much more, in one comprehensive volume.
The Personal MBA distills the most valuable business lessons into simple, memorable mental models that can be applied to real-world challenges.

4 out of 5 stars

Definitely worth a read

By
Jamie
on
02-03-15

The 1-Page Marketing Plan

Get New Customers, Make More Money, And Stand Out From The Crowd

By:
Allan Dib

Narrated by:
Joel Richards

Length: 6 hrs and 26 mins

Unabridged

Overall

5 out of 5 stars
114

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
98

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
98

Warning: Do not listen to this book if you hate money! To build a successful business, you need to stop doing random acts of marketing and start following a reliable plan for rapid business growth. Traditionally, creating a marketing plan has been a difficult and time-consuming process, which is why it often doesn't get done. In
The 1-Page Marketing Plan, serial entrepreneur and rebellious marketer Allan Dib reveals a marketing implementation breakthrough that makes creating a marketing plan simple and fast.

5 out of 5 stars

bloody marvellous

By
Amazon Customer
on
25-09-18

No Money Down Property Investing

By:
Kevin McDonnell

Narrated by:
Kevin McDonnell

Length: 8 hrs and 4 mins

Unabridged

Overall

5 out of 5 stars
18

Performance

5 out of 5 stars
18

Story

5 out of 5 stars
18

Do you want to get on the property ladder? Buy your next home? Or are you keen to build a large property portfolio but don’t have the funds to get started? No Money Down Property Investing is the perfect guide to how you can get started and scale your property business quickly, with little or none of your own funds. Real-life examples, case studies, tools, and techniques you can use right now to turn your dreams into reality.

5 out of 5 stars

Does exactly what it says on the tin!

By
Alex S
on
18-02-19

Building a StoryBrand

Clarify Your Message So Customers Will Listen

By:
Donald Miller

Narrated by:
Donald Miller

Length: 4 hrs and 56 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
174

Performance

5 out of 5 stars
159

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
158

Donald Miller's StoryBrand process is a proven solution to the struggle business leaders face when talking about their businesses. This revolutionary method for connecting with customers provides listeners with the ultimate competitive advantage, revealing the secret for helping their customers understand the compelling benefits of using their products, ideas, or services.

1 out of 5 stars

A very long sales letter to an expensive course

By
Amazon Customer
on
13-02-18

E-Myth Mastery

The Seven Essential Disciplines for Building a World Class Company

By:
Michael E. Gerber

Narrated by:
Michael E. Gerber

Length: 7 hrs and 29 mins

Abridged

Overall

4 out of 5 stars
25

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
22

Story

4 out of 5 stars
22

Michael E. Gerber, the world's leading small business guru and best-selling author of the phenomenally successful
The E-Myth Revisited, presents the next big step in entrepreneurial management and leadership with
E-Myth Mastery. This audiobook presents a practical, real-world program that can be implemented in real-time in your business.

3 out of 5 stars

I need to re-read, it was a lot of information.

By
Amazon Customer
on
06-06-18

Startup CEO

A Field Guide to Scaling Up Your Business

By:
Matt Blumberg

Narrated by:
William Michael Redman

Length: 12 hrs and 48 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4 out of 5 stars
70

Performance

4 out of 5 stars
56

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
55

A definitive audiobook for any CEO - first time or otherwise - of a high-growth company. While big company CEOs are usually groomed for the job for years, startup CEOs aren't - and they're often young and relatively inexperienced in business in general.

5 out of 5 stars

Enjoyable insight into the thinking and workings

By
Campbell
on
23-02-15

Summary

It's been over a decade since Verne Harnish's best-selling book Mastering the Rockefeller Habits was first released. Scaling Up: How a Few Companies Make It...and Why the Rest Don't is the first major revision of this business classic. In Scaling Up, Harnish and his team share practical tools and techniques for building an industry-dominating business. These approaches have been honed from over three decades of advising tens of thousands of CEOs and executives and helping them navigate the increasing complexities (and weight) that come with scaling up a venture.

This book is written so everyone - from front line employees to senior executives - can get aligned in contributing to the growth of a firm. There's no reason to do it alone, yet many top leaders feel like they are the ones dragging the rest of the organization up the S-curve of growth. The goal of this book is to help you turn what feels like an anchor into wind at your back - creating a company where the team is engaged; the customers are doing your marketing; and everyone is making money. To accomplish this, Scaling Up focuses on the four major decision areas every company must get right: People, Strategy, Execution, and Cash.

The book includes a series of new one-page tools including the updated One-Page Strategic Plan and the Rockefeller Habits ChecklistTM, which more than 40,000 firms around the globe have used to scale their companies successfully - many to $1 billion and beyond. Running a business is ultimately about freedom. Scaling Up shows business leaders how to get their organizations moving in sync to create something significant and enjoy the ride. Bonus material for Scaling Up may be found at www.ScalingUp.com.

Audio is not enough, buy also paper book/ebook

Good to listen audio, however I recommend to buy also a paper copy. It would enable more systematic implementation of the advices from this book and better clarification of described concepts. If you want to buy only one version, then choose only a paper copy.

Good content, terrible accent

so-so

A few good ideas and lots of boring stuff and repetitions. Could be 30% shorter.

Sort by:

Overall

4 out of 5 stars

Performance

4 out of 5 stars

Story

3 out of 5 stars

Oliver Nielsen

20-11-16

It's good – but mostly for large companies

It's a good book. Dense and full of wisdom. Highly practical too – lots of worksheets to fill out.

It's mostly for companies 7-10 employees and up though. I can't help but wonder why there aren't more books written, targeting the solopreneurial startup phase: from 1 (you) to those 2-3 employees and up to the 8-12 employees where books like this one can take over, offering helpful advice for those stages.

Yes, there are plenty startup books with advice on how to select the best team members – but few that talk about the dangers of taking in/on those initial few employees: cashflow-wise, it can be a huge killer to any little business.

When should one hire the first employee – and what signs and pitfalls should one look for, in times of distress (bad cashflow for example)... And should one even hire ANY employees at all? Or rather find a solid business partner and a mentor, essentially making it a small company of three?What are the pros and cons of such a constellation?

Again: very few books seem to target this market and those vital questions. Without first finding the answers to them, and the challenges they represent; there's little need for a book like Scaling Up – many of us just aren't there yet.

8 of 9 people found this review helpful

Overall

5 out of 5 stars

Performance

5 out of 5 stars

Story

5 out of 5 stars

David

08-04-15

Just what the doctor ordered

Would you listen to Scaling Up again? Why?

I will have to listen again but this time with a pen and paper ready to take notes.

Any additional comments?

This is the perfect book for business owners that have gotten over the "start-up" hurdle and are beginning to enjoy some success. It really gets specific on how to carefully grow your company as to avoid some common pitfalls...mainly running out of CASH!!! I have seen our company sales growing rapidly but could not figure out where all the cash was going. This book hit me right in the face! My problem was not sales it was cash flow!!! I now have several specific action items I went to work on immediately.

8 of 9 people found this review helpful

Overall

3 out of 5 stars

Performance

4 out of 5 stars

Story

3 out of 5 stars

John

27-01-15

Good advice but too much advertising for Gazelles

It has very practical, actionable advice but there are way too many plugs for his business. At the end one is left wondering if the intent was really to help entrepreneurs or to generate opportunities for his consulting group.

13 of 16 people found this review helpful

Overall

4 out of 5 stars

Performance

4 out of 5 stars

Story

4 out of 5 stars

Josh

18-04-15

Starts The Juices Flowing

This book is good to get your brain thinking about the right way to do things/change things.

Not super in-depth about any one particular item; but covers a lot of different aspects that will now require further study and implementation.

9 of 11 people found this review helpful

Overall

5 out of 5 stars

Performance

5 out of 5 stars

Story

5 out of 5 stars

Atlanta C.

04-08-17

Mind blown

Well, I thought my business was doing well. Now I have my work cutout for me. Desire to learn and a bias for action.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Overall

4 out of 5 stars

Performance

4 out of 5 stars

Story

4 out of 5 stars

Kevin

04-04-15

Confusing narration but great content

The overall content was great. Narration style was difficult to follow due to too frequent accentuation.

5 of 6 people found this review helpful

Overall

1 out of 5 stars

Performance

3 out of 5 stars

Story

1 out of 5 stars

Michael

23-01-15

Literally Useless | No Way 5 Star Reviews are real

What disappointed you about Scaling Up?

This book is literally Useless. It has no meat. No real advice. It's filled with a string of unconnected thoughts, thin metaphors and anecdotal stories that barely scratch the surface of any real business issue. It's filled with useless phrases like "the first rule of money management is don't run out of money" and then it moves on to a completely separate thought like "business is like climbing everest...". It feels like it was written by a high school student. It's SOOO Bad.

What could Verne Harnish have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

I wish he had done some first hand research, and/or had some first hand experience in business. It sounds like he's just regurgitating things he's heard from amateur entrepreneurs.

What aspect of Spencer Cannon’s performance would you have changed?

Performance was fine, content was mind-numbingly awful

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

The first 3 chapters were literally Useless. The rest of the book was maybe 90% useless (if I'm totally honest)

Any additional comments?

Normally the reviews you find on audible are fairly reliable, but there is literally no possible way that the 5 Star Reviews on this book are real. They have to be faked becuase this book is seriously useless. The only way those 5 Star Reviews could be real is if they all came from people who have zero actual experience running a business and instead they thrive on pep-talks and spend their days dreaming about "one day I'll start a business..." but if you want real help scaling up a business, stay away from this book, you'll find nothing useful here.

50 of 68 people found this review helpful

Overall

1 out of 5 stars

Performance

1 out of 5 stars

Story

1 out of 5 stars

Zohar Babin

17-03-15

The information is good, but it's wrapped with so

It's wrapped with so much sales pitch that almost every two minutes you feel like stopping. Good intention, awful execution, this book could have been so much better had they not made into a huge sales pitch.

8 of 12 people found this review helpful

Overall

3 out of 5 stars

Performance

1 out of 5 stars

Story

3 out of 5 stars

rollerroman

03-01-15

Might be good, can't get past naration

Would you try another book from Verne Harnish and/or Spencer Cannon?

Sure, as long as there is a different narator

What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?

Couldn't get past the naration

How could the performance have been better?

Hiring a human to narrate the book.

Did Scaling Up inspire you to do anything?

Write this review

Any additional comments?

The narrator has this weird cadence, he starts low, goes high, then goes low again, long pause at each period, than starts again on the next sentence. The whole thing feels like he is reading a bullet point list, it is very taxing to listen to.

15 of 23 people found this review helpful

Overall

3 out of 5 stars

Performance

1 out of 5 stars

Story

5 out of 5 stars

ABDULHAKK

12-03-15

great but fast.

The subject info and stories are amazing yet the narrator too fast and is telling the story like a robot